When Capitals defenseman Mike Green left Game 5 against New York after taking a puck off his head from the stick of Matt Gilroy, Capitals fans were immediately worried about how Green would respond to that. After all, Green was fairly recently back from missing over 20 games with a concussion that put his playoff availability in doubt.

Today, Green spoke with reporters to let everyone know just how he was doing and Caps fans should be feeling pretty good about it.

“They make good helmets and this time it hit me in the helmet,” Green said, sporting a bruise on the left side of his face. “I’m OK, so that’s all that matters.”

Green blocked a Brooks Orpik slap shot Feb. 6 at Verizon Center and missed the final 20 games of the regular season with a concussion and 26 of the final 28 games overall. Green says he has not felt any concussion-like symptoms since Saturday.

“No, not at all,” Green said. “The first one was a lot different than this one. Right away, I knew with the first one [that something was wrong]. This one, I got up right away. Other than it stinging a little bit, I was fine.”

That’s overly positive as far as the injury concern goes for Green. With the amount of time off the Caps have had until the start of the second round, it’s a bonus for them to get the free time off so Green can get healthy. With Dennis Wideman still working his way back to health and Tom Poti still out, losing Green for any amount of time would be rough going. Green played great against the Rangers notching five points in the series. If Green says he’s good to go, that helps but it’s ultimately up to the doctors.